Spectrum Computing

ianace wrote: ↑Thu May 07, 2020 10:33 pm I have introduced my 6 year old and nine year old to gauntlet two , they love it! Played in grey 128k +2
, with 2 joysticks, they love the seeming never ending levels , great two player game.

I found it a hugely playable conversion back in the day, great game to get the kids introduced to the charms of 8 bit.

Yeah I like the fact that as long as you both do not die at the same time the players keep re-spawning , keeps the interest I wonder how many levels there are ? We have been up to 35!

Juan F. Ramirez wrote: ↑Thu May 07, 2020 8:01 pm

WIWC wrote: ↑Thu May 07, 2020 6:36 pm You say it every single time.
https://www.worldofspectrum.org/forums/ ... ent_931958

Haha, that's true. It's one of my english 'canned' phrases I use it as a robot (but it's true, I've never heard of them! )

By the way, are you ok?, it's been a long time since you last posted here, glad to see here again!

I post the games I play on Twitter. I have Zythum loading screen as avatar. I should have posted them here too maybe.

Pentacorn Quest. Some of the puzzles are great, and set it well apart from a 'regular' churro. Still haven't completed it after all these years.

R-Tape wrote: ↑Fri May 08, 2020 2:23 pm

Pentacorn Quest. Some of the puzzles are great, and set it well apart from a 'regular' churro. Still haven't completed it after all these years.

Churro?

Aye it's the nickname for games made with the Mojon Twin's C Language game creator, there are a few versions of it, but it all began with La Churrera. The trademarks of a churro are 16 x 16 tiles, and moving with inertia.

Like a real churro (sorry maybe too sugary for you Doug), they can be a bit 'samey', but usually good; and you sometimes get one that's dipped in chocolate*, like Pentacorn Quest.

*analogy © hikoki

Other suggestion from me, kokotoni wilf- Time travelling man with wings searches through different time periods for magic crystals dinosaur age, Middle Ages, 1066 1984 and the future. Downloaded this on my Vega, now I understand key mapping (Thanks folks in the forum!) it’s good on the vega making us of the save option!

Again kids like it.

R-Tape wrote: ↑Fri May 08, 2020 2:23 pm

Pentacorn Quest. Some of the puzzles are great, and set it well apart from a 'regular' churro. Still haven't completed it after all these years.

Completed! Though I did have to cheat on one of the puzzles. Fantastic game. The only downside is that sometimes the effect of solving a puzzle isn't clear, and text vanishes quickly because the keys aren't debounced.

Android One by Vortex Software



One of the first games I played. Excellent. The only problem is too easy. I wish it had more screens.

Snowball (1983) by Level 9.

I don't understand much of what's going on.

West Bank by Dinamic. Always a good option to play.

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=5471

Turmoil. A profoundly good platformer, so difficult right from the first screen, but
just brilliant in gameplay and looks, nothing like it anywhere else I have ever seen.

MtM wrote: ↑Sun May 17, 2020 10:45 pm https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=5471

Turmoil. A profoundly good platformer, so difficult right from the first screen, but
just brilliant in gameplay and looks, nothing like it anywhere else I have ever seen.

If Manic Miner hadn't existed, it's Bug Bytes greatest title - in my humble opinion

I hear what you are saying. Manic Miner & JSW need no defence from me or anyone else, they are of course seminal games. I am not
au fait with every Bug Byte release, though most of them I imagine. I put Turmoil on a par
with MM though, as much as I love MM & JSW.

I would love to have seen a Turmoil style JSW flick screen game. The levels in Turmoil are
all so busy and their design is just glorious, including their look. If I had to criticise it
it would be its sheer difficulty. I even like the Bizet in game tune, find it relaxing to play
to. There are differences with MM & JSW, in that you cannot learn the patterns of the
nasties in Turmoil, as they change, and have a degree of autonomy in their movement,
this gives it a different feel to a standard left, right and jump platformer. I find the controls
very crisp and the keyboard layout is perfect. It was a very worthy Crash smash.

I've spent the last 2 days playing through Urban Upstart.
It's a bit slow but crank up the emulation speed and it's pretty enjoyable.

Not sure how well Urban Upstart has aged, with its simplistic graphics and sluggish parser. I remember last time I tried to play it, it was a bit of a painful experience.

I guess it was a breath of fresh air when it was released, as its setting was different from the many fantasy/dungeon hack adventure settings.

I couldn't play it at normal speed, the graphics take too long to load. Speed it up a bit and it's fine.
It took me a while to realise you could enter the buildings. It told me I was outside a bookshop but when I tried to "Enter Bookshop" it didn't understand "bookshop". Later I tried "Enter" by itself and it worked!

Having conquered Urban Upstart I thought I'd try another Pete Cooke adventure, Invincible Island.

It didn't seem so invincible until I tried to get to the last piece of parchment which was on a small island.

Spoiler

I had the dingy, how hard could it be?

Enter Dingy?
Board Dingy?
Sail Dingy?
Go Dingy?
Row Dingy?

After about 3 years I looked up the answer which was simply "Cross"

Wtf?!!!!!

Jason's Gem by Mastertronic.



I only heard of it here but never played it. It's a very nice surprise. I'm sure there's a lot of fans here

Another cool find: Bestial Warrior by Dinamic



I've not played many 1989 onwards games like this. My first impression was it's very similar to Game Over, what is great as it's one of my faves Dinamic games.

I don't know how 'Bestial Warrior' sounds to an english spoken person, but to a spaniard is something like 'eh, we're Dinamic and with this name you know what you're come across'

Juan F. Ramirez wrote: ↑Sun May 31, 2020 8:02 pm Another cool find: Bestial Warrior by Dinamic



I've not played many 1989 onwards games like this. My first impression was it's very similar to Game Over, what is great as it's one of my faves Dinamic games.

I don't know how 'Bestial Warrior' sounds to an english spoken person, but to a spaniard is something like 'eh, we're Dinamic and with this name you know what you're come across'

It's not the, er, most wholesome title, but when did Dinamic ever play by anyone's rules?

Pyracurse [1986, Hewson Consultants]



This is one of the most frustrating games ever. I hate headless zombies, flying skulls and giant scorpions. And I always will.

WIWC wrote: ↑Sun May 31, 2020 11:10 pmI hate headless zombies, flying skulls and giant scorpions. And I always will.

I think that's fair.

Being a fan of Avalon/Dragontorc, I was very excited when I started seeing the adverts and previews for Pyracurse. Hewson at a strong period in their lifetime.

Ultimately I was a little disappointed when I played it - I just couldn't get anywhere.

Nice that you get to play as a dog though...

Morkin wrote: ↑Mon Jun 01, 2020 8:35 am Being a fan of Avalon/Dragontorc, I was very excited when I started seeing the adverts and previews for Pyracurse. Hewson at a strong period in their lifetime.

Ultimately I was a little disappointed when I played it - I just couldn't get anywhere.

Nice that you get to play as a dog though...

And as a damsel in distress. Pyracurse received a lot of good reviews at the time, but it's very, very difficult to get into.
The energy of your characters gets drained very quickly, the nasties are very hard to avoid, as they tend to follow you around very stubbornly.
It's also very well done. But it really takes a lot of patience and effort to get somewhere with it.